Saturday evening at Emerald City Comicon, fans assembled to hear from some of their favorite creators about what the future holds for the characters of the DC Universe. DC Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras served as moderator and fielded the majority of questions. He was joined by writer Marv Wolfman, writer/artist Dan Jurgens, "Superboy" writer Jeff Lemire, "Action Comics" artist Pete Woods, "Superman" editor Matt Idelson, "Batman Beyond" artist Ryan Benjamin and artist Kevin Maguire.

Harras' first order of business was to announce that DC's "major event" this summer would be "Flashpoint," Geoff Johns' take on The Flash mythos. Harras promised "a pivotal moment in DC history, with ramifications for a long time to come." "Everything you know," Harras said, "will change in a flash."

After first explaining that the best and most eloquently phrased questions would be judged by the panel and rewarded with a donut (boxes of which sat on the panelists' table), Harras opened up the floor to questions from a long line of eager fans. Harras said that this was the chance for fans to ask "anything [they] want to know about DC." The fans responded with questions ranging from appearance requests for favorite characters to detailed questions of continuity.

Another fan wanted to know if the Demon Etrigan would be making any upcoming appearances. Harras replied that he'd just seen some pages by "Batman: The Dark Knight" writer/artist David Finch and that readers would see "a very cool version of the Demon Etrigan" in the near future. Another fan wanted to know if The Riddler would feature in any future stories. "I would say yes, soon," said Harras, who told the questioner that the villain is David Finch's favorite character.

Marv Wolfman, Dan Jurgens and Pete Woods address the crowd

A reader dissatisfied with the gaps left in Paul Levitz's "Legion of Superheroes" history was promised that "Paul has major plans for the book and will be filling those gaps" beginning in late summer/fall.

In response to a question about character relaunches and deaths, Harras acknowledged that death has been "overdone in the business as a whole." "If death happens it's gotta be a major thing," said Harras of his plans for how to handle death at DC. "It just cheapens it if a character comes back in six months. We're going to slow down with that."

Woods announced that "Action Comics" #900 would feature "someone we haven't seen yet" and promised the current story arc "would end with a very classic Lex [Luthor] moment."

There were a number of questions about movies, cartoons, and other specifics that Harras and the panel could not address, as well as a slew of others that were met with what seemed to be a favorite response: "I think it could happen, but I don't know specifically." Other questions went unanswered because, as Jurgens explained, "we're trying to be cagey."